We'll have a foster puppy, Sabrina, coming to us in about two weeks! She currently weighs in at about 2.5 pounds and is 7 weeks old. Isn't she a cutie? Even though she'll attend our puppy classes three times a week, I thought it would be fun to take her to another Austin dog training school for puppy class. I'd get to experience puppy classes from a client point-of-view and she'd get even more socialization (which we all know is the key to raising a great puppy!). When I went searching for a good class, I was surprised at how hard it was to find one!
I know a good trainer down South so I can travel to her if I need to, but I wanted to find one up closer to Central Austin, where I'm located. Here are the problems I ran into (and a little bit about why I think they're problems):
Private training was the only option offered. I ran into this one a lot! Apparently many of the dog trainers in Austin are only offering puppy training in your home. Many even touted this as a selling point (fewer distractions for your puppy or easier for you since you don't have to load the puppy into the car). To me, this makes no sense at all. If you understand puppy development, you know that a puppy needs to be exposed to new sights, smells, sounds, people, and other animals in a safe environment at a young age. Puppy classes should include opportunities to interact with others, explore new textures or obstacles, and listen to different sounds. Of course, we also teach some basic manners in our puppy classes (like Sit, Come, and Leave-It), but a primary focus of puppy classes is to socialize your puppy! Classes at home do none of this for me!
The class was for people only. This setup has the same pitfalls as the private puppy training option. No opportunity for socialization and experiencing the world that my puppy has to live in!
The website didn't tell me anything about who would be teaching the classes. A couple of the dog training places that did offer group puppy classes didn't offer any information about the teacher that would be holding the class. I want to be able to check out the teachers, see who they are, what their education consists of, what their experience level is, and what their training methodologies are. I'm not signing my puppy up for any classes without knowing who is teaching the class!
Many didn't offer puppy training at all! Puppies can learn so much in such a short period of time. I want a dog training school that understands this and can help me capitalize on it!
Some classes included 6 month old adolescents with 10 week old puppies. Well, here's one where you need to call and do your homework. The crucial thing here is to find out if the 6 month old adolescents are going to be allowed to play with the younger puppies. Remember, a 10 week old puppy shouldn't play with an adolescent - it's a recipe for rough play manners, poor social skills, and an overwhelmed puppy! If they split the class into appropriate ages for play, I might consider attending.
Puppy classes were taught at a local park. When you take your young puppy out to a puppy class, they won't be fully vaccinated yet. Because of this, you're really trying to balance the risk of being exposed to a disease like Parvo with the risk that your puppy may develop serious behavior problems (leading to rehoming or euthanasia) if the puppy is not well-socialized at an appropriate age. Although as a canine behavior consultant that deals with aggression and anxiety I err on the side of socialization at an early age, I always recommend being smart about that socialization. For example, we sanitize our training center with Trifectant before each puppy class (Trifectant kills Parvo, Distemper, Hepatitis, and more). I also recommend skipping the dog park or pet stores until your puppy is older. For these reasons, I'm going to cross classes held in parks off of my list - I don't know if the dogs that were there earlier in the day were healthy and vaccinated and I'm not taking a chance on it!
Well, it looks like Sabrina and I will likely drive South to the trainer I know down there and she'll do puppy classes with me at our Austin Dog Training School. I'm skipping the rest of them for now!
Cara, Buddy's Chance, LLC, Austin Dog Training, Behavior, and Dog Daycare
I have used PetSmart puppy classes in the past and really liked them. Puppies had to be 3 months old & have proof of vacinations. It was held in the store & the trainer was excellent. I was in Corpus Christi at the time. I then went in to Intermediate classes, mostly with young dogs. My maniac puppy did well and passed.
Posted by: Linda McLaughlin | November 21, 2007 at 12:33 PM
Those picture by the beach were really great. Do you need to show proof that your dog is vaccinated before going to park training?
Posted by: Demosthenes | December 11, 2007 at 04:23 PM